New Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has promised Labour-held Newcastle will be among the party's top targets at the next General Election.

Local party activists received the assurance when Sir Menzies visited the city during the leadership contest and it was confirmed by one of his aides at the party's spring conference in Harrogate.

Even though the Lib Dems won control of Newcastle Council from Labour in 2004, the city was only a second tier target behind Durham City at the 2005 General Election.

Despite this, Labour majorities were slashed and Coun Greg Stone, who fought Newcastle Central and helped run Sir Menzies' leadership campaign, said: "The leadership has recognised that the North East and in particular Newcastle was one of the areas where most progress was made."

The decision means Newcastle will get the same level of support as Durham City.

Following boundary changes, the main targets next time will be Newcastle North and Newcastle East followed by Newcastle Central.

Meanwhile, I also hear the Lib Dems are about to announce a new full-time organiser covering the Newcastle area.

Blaydon Labour MP David Anderson has joined the battle to save one of Westminster's favourite watering holes from closure. New Labour whips and the Commons authorities want to close Annie's Bar, popular among MPs, peers and lobby correspondents, because they reckon it isn't economic.

Generations of North East MPs have drunk in Annie's including Mr Anderson's predecessor in Blaydon, John McWilliam.

Mr Anderson and Mr McWilliam have joined lobby chairman Frank Prenesti in a last ditch attempt to save the bar from the axe.

In a motion circulated to MPs and ministers, Mr Anderson says: "Annie's Bar is a vital part of the House of Commons where MPs can mix with colleagues of other parties and talk to journalists off the record."

They're a tough bunch in Sweden, as a group from Westminster including North East Labour MPs Sharon Hodgson and Kevan Jones, discovered on a recent visit to Stockholm.

In the capital to look at the city's schools system, the MPs found that the Swedes have an odd concept of time. Every time they went anywhere their hosts said it would take 15 minutes and then began a forced march for an hour or more through miles of snow in sub zero temperatures.

Mrs Hodgson, MP for Gateshead East & Washington West, confessed at that at times she was trailing in the wake of the hardier Mr Jones, MP for Durham North, who has been on exercises in Norway with the Royal Marines, where he slept in a snowhole in the Arctic Circle.

In the end, though, fearing frostbite and the possible loss of extremities, they both decided they'd had enough and demanded to be allowed to use the city's excellent bus and tram system.

Just for fun, Lib Dem councillors held a ballot the day before the outcome of the party's leadership election was known. Simon Hughes was eliminated on the first ballot and when second preference votes were distributed among the remaining two contenders, Sir Menzies Campbell won with 58% of the total.

Lo and behold, in the real election, the following day, Simon Hughes was a eliminated on the first ballot and Sir Menzies Campbell won with 58% of the vote. "Spooky stuff," said Newcastle executive member Coun David Faulkner, who helped organise the ballot.

Sunderland South MP and former Labour minister Chris Mullin wants the Government to ban bearskin hats worn by the Guards regiments.

He wants fake fur used instead. "The bearskin hats have no military significance and involve unnecessary cruelty," he says in a Commons motion.